Friday, March 29, 2013

One lovely afternoon hanging out with my supervisor, I fell in love with Starbucks lemon loaf. It was a pure lemony perfection. It was then my mission to find the recipe and recreate it at home. $2.50 a slice is simply too heavy on my pockets. I need to be able to make this at home any time!

The first recipe I tried is not really worth mentioning. It was dry and not very... lemony.

The recipe I used for my second try can be found HERE. Thank you!! 180 degrees different. It was moist, lemony, and 100% addictive.

The third go round, I had a vision around 2:00 a.m. to incorporate lemon heads somehow. I went to a few different stores, only to find that they were much more difficult to find in Chicago grocery stores than once thought. Four stores later, Walgreen's had a bag. I threw them in the blender with the icing for a crunchy, lemony, sugary topping-maybe TOO sugary.The fourth, and hopefully final go round, I incorporated hard candy-lemon rounds from Target. I put them in the blender with the icing ingredients to make a saucy yellow lemon icing. This time it was smooth, instead of crunchy. I also gave it a chance to soak into the top of the cake itself. I heard that this is the best one so far... All but one particular person who shall go unnamed, may be upset that there weren't actual lemon heads on top this time. ...Maybe just go eat a bag of lemon heads instead?

A few variations.. to each their own. Personally, I have come to enjoy this recipe much more than the original Starbucks version, as have a few of my coworkers. The only downside is that now they are requesting it a LOT. I don't mind though, because I enjoy doing something nice for the great people I work with.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

One of my greatest memories of my childhood is of working in my grandmother's garden. It was an urban oasis encompassing the entire backyard. Peach tree, cherry tree, collard greens, tomatoes, banana peppers, onions, grape vines, roses, marigolds, and plethora of other goodies. There was always so much work to be done, yet some of the most rewarding fruits were found there.

Knowing exactly where your food comes from may be one of the obvious benefits, particularly in our generation where organic thinking seems to be the trend on everyone's mind. While this is important, the benefits of growing some of my own goodies goes a little further. Remembering the life lessons learned in those long conversations with my grandmother are being passed on to my son now.

Patience. Love. Hard work. Value. Purpose. Rewards.

It has been a long time since I've tried my hand at
gardening, and now that I'm in an apartment on the third floor with no
patio I have even more restrictions. What I heard though, is that where
there is a will there is a way. So... Here goes... everything. Genovese basil, garden sage, slow bolt cilantro, Italian flat leaf parsley, jalapenos, and chives. I imagine there will be lots of trial and error... I welcome the challenges. With challenges come wisdom.

The past couple days my seedlings have started to sprout. It has been an adventure watching life show through some of the most basic components of life that we often take for granted, especially living in an urban area. Soil, water, sunlight, water. We used a mix of peat pots, re-purposed old vegetable cans, and re-purposed plastic vegetable containers for planting.

After relocating within the apartment four or five times, finally found the best home in the kitchen window. This morning I rushed to check on their overnight progress. My jalapenos have started sprouting. I couldn't be more excited.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

A constant aroma of freshly baked cornbread, homemade peach
cobbler, smothered pork chops, and a plethora of what I thought were exotic
foods, always seemed to be my salvage from the chaos of the world.Peer expectations, teenage love, and the
daily struggles of life as a young person, would leave me drained by
3:00pm.But somehow, my grandmother
Alean May would always provide enough love for me that it made up for all the
bad in my day.A little scripture, a few
hugs, and some really good soul food are what have left the deepest of
impressions on me.She was and still has
a huge place in my heart, that twelve years after her death has not left
me.It has not swayed; if anything my
appreciation for her love and commitment to family has been instilled in me in
ways I am only now recognizing as her doing.

“Ebony, anything can taste good.You just have to know how to cook it the
right way,” she would remind me.I spent
my afternoons in the kitchen listening to her explain the ways of the world,
while picking up on many of her tips and tricks in the kitchen.I wish I had spent more time as her
apprentice, because I now know that her expertise was abundant.They say hindsight is 20/20.Somehow, I believe that what she left me with
was deeper than the surface, which highlights cooking techniques.She left me with an appreciation for content
and quality of life and love, faith, health, hard work, and cooking with love.

My long-awaited food blog is most certainly a dedication to her
and the love she taught me to have unconditionally, often expressed through
food.

I have so many ideas
and adventures surrounding food-love.More to come…

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About Me

I love unconditionally, live everyday like it is my last, enjoy my wonderful son, live by "Carpe Diem", and believe that chain reactions exist everywhere so I'm trying to put a little positive out in the world.